Rain is to Fungi...

...as BP is to cakes - a popping agent and out they come. We have had an unusual amount of rain in Brisbane and in Queensland generally, in February, and it is with some delight that I walk and watch them popping  up but not all are as gaily coloured as these lovely balls which we saw on our walk around Enogerra Dam. And I ask myself there is no food colouring down there so what makes them pop so brightly when they appear almost instantaneously above the ground?